


Duck and Cover

by purgatory-of-assbutts (phxntxsos)



Category: Once Upon A Time - Fandom
Genre: earthquake
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-10-05 13:04:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20489357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phxntxsos/pseuds/purgatory-of-assbutts
Summary: Tumblr Prompt:Sharing a bed is out. Getting locked in a closet together is out.“We’re having an earthquake and there’s only one under-the-table” is in.





	Duck and Cover

**Author's Note:**

> Based on that prompt cause I’m in Cali and that first big one the other day woke my tired ass up :/
> 
> Also, idk if earthquakes are a thing in Maine(?), so if they aren’t, then imma just ignore that for convenience’s sake lol

Friday, 10 AM

The room was spinning. 

No, Belle realized as she saw dust coming from the ceiling and heard books hitting the ground, the entire library was shaking. She was in the middle of an earthquake. She wasn’t even aware that the east coast _ had _ earthquakes up to this point, though in her defense, she was more than prepared for the possibility of practically any other kind of natural disaster. 

She turned toward the fallen books as a larger one hit and made her fall from the little step stool she was on, though thankfully someone caught before her grabbing her by the wrist and putting an arm around her shoulders as they herded them both under a nearby desk against the wall. 

It took Belle a moment to register that it had been Mr. Gold who caught and held her and, as the shock started wearing down, recalled how he had been in the middle of having a book recommended by her during his weekly visit when the tremoring began. 

Honestly, she was more than a little surprised when he first stepped into her library a few months prior, especially considering how he barely even bothered to glance their way in the two years she’d been in Storybrooke. 

Belle was just about to thank him for his prompt response when she recoiled as part of the ceiling broke off and landed on the desk, effectively trapping them both in. Fortunately, the quaking seemed to stop by then and the two of them waited out the aftershocks. 

He offered her a handkerchief to block out the worst of the debris floating around as he took out his pocket square to do the same.

They remained silent as the aftershocks faded and the dust settled down and Belle was starting to feel rather awkward, especially since the rushed movements and rather cramped space made it so the pair were practically entangled when they got there and the enclosure did not afford much possibly for maneuvering.

Belle felt her anxiety beginning to rise as she took stock of their situation, and she blurted out the first thing that popped into her head. “I’m sorry about the ceiling.”

Gold started at her sudden declaration, “Whatever do you mean, Miss French?”

“Well, practically the whole building needs to be fixed up to some degree, but the ceiling was the worst of it,” she explained. “I’d just gotten the funding approved this morning, and Marco was supposed to start working on it over the weekend.”

“That’s hardly your fault.”

“Yeah, but still,” she said, shrugging. “You probably wouldn’t be in this situation if you were at your shop when this happened.”

“No,” he agreed wryly. “I’d have been pummeled and impaled by my own wares, instead.”

Belle giggled. She hadn’t known Gold had a sense of humor. “Thank you, by the way, Mr. Gold. For helping me.”

“No matter,” he said solicitously. “It wouldn’t do for the rest of the town to hear that the local miserly beast did something nice, after all.”

“No, seriously. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I was alone here. I was going to check on the books, of all things,” she bemoaned. “Stuff was falling and everything was moving around and I couldn’t even stand straight and I wanted to check on the books.”

“Ah, the woes of being a bibliophile,” he commiserated. “Really, though. Don’t thank me. If I weren’t here, there wouldn’t have been any reason for you to have fallen, anyway.”

“If you weren’t here,” Belle countered dryly, “I would’ve been off returning books onto shelves I can’t reach and would probably be buried under a bunch of books rather than being safely ensconced under this cozy little table.”

“Yes, well-” Gold trailed off awkwardly as they heard rubble being shifted around and the voice of the rather gruff miner as well as that of the innkeeper’s granddaughter calling her name. 

“We’re over here!” Belle yelled, and the pair looked up after unfolding themselves to find a surprisingly large group of people gathered around their table and clearing the debris. Gold dusted off his jacket as he started walking away, limping worse than usual, pausing as Belle called out, “Thanks again, Mr. Gold.”

He nodded in acknowledgment and started walking again as he overheard Miss Lucas addressing Miss French, “Oh, you were stuck with _ him _? Tough luck, Belle. Anyway, it looks like the library got the worst of it during the earthquake, so a few of us got together—”

Well. Perhaps he ought to make a rather large (anonymous) donation to the library if this is what it would be like the next time there something happened. 


End file.
